{{Short description|English landowner and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Use British English|date=February 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Sir John Backhouse | image = Sir John Backhouse by 'VM'.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1584 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death year and age|1649|1584}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Writer | known_for = New River Company }}

'''Sir John Backhouse''', KB (1584 – 9 October 1649) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1625 to 1629. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Backhouse was the son of Samuel Backhouse of Swallowfield Park in Berkshire and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Borlase of Little Marlow in Buckinghamshire.<ref name=VCH>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43215 'Parishes: Swallowfield', A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3 (1923), pp. 267-274. Date accessed: 9 July 2011]</ref> In the early 17th century, he helped found the New River Company to bring a new water supply to the City of London. In 1625, he was elected Member of Parliament for Great Marlow and was re-elected MP for Great Marlow in 1626.<ref name=Willis>{{Cite Notitia Parliamentaria|converted=1|part=2|pages=229–239}}</ref> He was appointed Knight of the Order of the Bath at the coronation of King Charles I in 1626,<ref name=VCH/> the year in which he inherited Swallowfield Park. In 1628 he was re-elected MP for Great Marlow and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.<ref name=Willis/>

Backhouse supported the King in the Civil War and as a result he was imprisoned and his estates were sequestrated. He died on 9 October 1649 and a monument was erected to his memory by his widow in Swallowfield Church.<ref name=VCH/>

Backhouse married Flower (Flora),<ref name=VCH/> daughter of Thomas Henshawe<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/backhouse-john-1584-1649|title = BACKHOUSE (BACCHUS, BACKHURST), John (1584-1649), of Sindlesham and Swallowfield, Berks. And Kingsley, Hants. &#124; History of Parliament Online}}</ref> and sister of Benjamin Henshawe of the City of London on 11 July 1615. They had no children.

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} {{s-bef | before= Henry Borlase | before2= Thomas Cotton }} {{s-ttl | title=Member of Parliament for Great Marlow | with= Thomas Cotton 1625 | with2= Sir William Hicks, 1st Baronet | with3= Miles Hobart | years=1625–1629 }} {{s-non| reason= Parliament suspended until 1640}} {{s-end}}

{{Thames Water}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backhouse, John}} Category:1584 births Category:1649 deaths Category:English MPs 1625 Category:17th-century English landowners Category:People from Swallowfield Category:Knights of the Bath Category:Cavaliers Category:London water infrastructure Category:Thames Water Category:English MPs 1626 Category:English MPs 1628–1629